WhyItDropped

Nikkei 225 · September 10, 1990

A big day close to the bottom

+4.67%

single-day change vs previous close

Part of a longer stretch

The bubble's first leg down

near the end of it · 1989-12-29 → 1990-10-01, -48.04% over the whole period

What happened that day?

  • On 10 September 1990 the Nikkei 225 rose 4.67%
  • Moves of three to five percent a day had become routine
  • Volatility grows as a slide nears its end, because the people still in it disagree more sharply
  • The low came three weeks later on 1 October, 48.04% below the peak
  • No single trigger can be pinned to this day
  • In this stretch the index was 39.08% below its peak

Sources

Every figure on this page is recomputed from the original daily closing prices and checked against them at build time. The account of what happened is written from the sources listed above.